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Over the last various decades, we have witnessed a long tradition of U.S. foreign policy officials making clear to our friends and enemies that we do not bargain with terrorists. The customary belief from national security professionals is that bargaining with the bad guys in any way will persuade more bad guys and more bad practices.
It is a difficult policy, to be sure, if your loved one is taken hostage by Al Qaeda, the Taliban or ISIS or any other group. After all, family members of hostages will do almost anything to see their loved ones returned home. But experts are almost unanimous in their perception that the overall U.S. government policy should stand unquestionably against prisoner swaps for hostages and negotiations with our foes.
The Obama administration, however, while occasionally claiming it doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, has done it.
Regrettably, the bad guys now know there can be a reward for having something the U.S. wants. They know what they need to do in order to get the focus of President Obama and his national security team.
President Obama in person verified his bargaining and prisoner swap from the White House Rose Garden in May of 2014: “I’m also grateful for the tireless work of our diplomats, and for the cooperation of the government of Qatar in helping to secure Bowe’s release. We’ve worked for several years to achieve this goal, and earlier this week I was able to personally thank the Emir of Qatar for his leadership in helping us get it done. As part of this effort, the United States is transferring five detainees from the prison in Guantanamo Bay to Qatar.”
Putting aside the atrocious negotiating skills of Team Obama for agreeing to trade five Taliban agents for one American soldier, whose platoon mates believe he deserted them, the message President Obama sent to our enemies is that the U.S. is willing to disregard decades of past U.S. policy and talk about deals and swaps. Sadly, the bad guys now know there can be a reward for having something the U.S. wants. They know what they need to do in order to get the attention of President Obama and his national security team.
This horrendous decision is the Obama legacy. We are slipping down the slope that the Obama administration keeps greasing.
This week, Jamie Kirchick and Shane Harris of The Daily Beast went public with the latest painful sign of Obama’s weak bargaining skills and precedent-setting Rose Garden statement: A Qatari lawyer meeting in then-U.S. Ambassador to Qatar Susan Ziadeh’s office in Doha floated the idea of a different prisoner swap. The lawyer recommended that Qatar and the U.S. exchange an Al Qaeda operative for Americans Matt and Grace Huang, an evangelical Christian couple wrongly accused in the death of their adopted daughter and imprisoned in Doha.
Kirchick and Harris wrote, “The proposed swap involving the Al Qaeda agent, Ali Saleh Al-Marri, raises troubling questions about whether the Bergdahl trade opened a kind of Pandora’s box, signaling to foreign governments that they can pressure the United States to make concessions on terrorism by trading American prisoners abroad for dangerous extremists held in the United States.”
The Huangs were let go by Qatari officials last month, and Al-Marri was released from a U.S. prison this month.
The State Department is denying that they engaged on the Qatari lawyer’s swap proposal, stating it never discussed Al-Marri for the Huangs. U.S. officials say Al-Marri was let go for good behavior. But the precedent for public hostage trades and swaps is clear, and President Obama’s own words are to blame. It is his legacy. Enjoy!!!
The Rabbit Hole Goes Real Deep, Find Out How Deep… HERE